Introduction
Rona Inc. is a worldwide brand that was originally a Canadian hardware distributor. The company has been operating in the home improvement market since its incision. Rona was started in the year 1939. A series of strategic development goals over the years have helped the company find great success in the global market. Today, the company’s network of stores leads the distributing market enjoying average sales of six billion dollars yearly (Rona.Inc.2014). To reach this mark, Rona Inc. operates under a segment company system that is spread all over the world. Currently, there are more than twenty franchising companies under the Rona banner. Ultimately, Rona Inc holds about nineteen percent of the international market share. Rona’s headquarters are in Boucherville, and the administration center is found in Surrey, British Columbia.
Since its inception, Rona Company has been committed to providing quality services and products. This has been instrumental to its success not only in financial terms but also reputation-wise. The company marketing strategy is the secret to the adverse worldwide market growth. The company’s increasingly dealing with alliances in since the 1960’s to the 1990’s formed a formidable force in the home improvement industry. Some of the merger partners include; Dismat, ITM Enterprises, Burnaby, material Coupal Inc among many others. Other companies under Rona umbrella include; Rona Cash & Carry, Home Ceter, the Building Box, Dicks Lumber and Bricomax.
As the company was started in Canada, the mission for Rona was to provide all Canadians with the best quality products in the home accessories sector. These included building tools and other products that are required for home improvement. With a worldwide ambition, the mission today is to provide people across the globe with quality services and products for home improvement. The support of worldwide employees has contributed significantly in fulfilling this mission.
Vision
Rona seeks to extend its commitment of delivering the best products to people across the globe regardless of economic and geographical differences. This is the company’s vision and again, with the help of the extensive network of personnel support, this vision is achievable. The company is also very committed to carrying its objective by holding on to its set values that guide the corporation in making sensitive business decisions. The main stated values include; being the best employer, keeping the customer at the center of every decision, upholding discipline, maintaining a sense of responsibility and operating with efficiency and simplicity.
Strategic objectives
As discussed in the mission and vision above, it is evident that Rona Inc. relies on a thorough and comprehensive strategy to carry on with its everyday duties. Furthermore, the mission and vision of the company has been instrumental to achieving the set objectives. The company seeks to be at the helm of the home improvement market in the world and consequently, it has been fully committed to this goal (Cotton, Falvey & Kent, 2000). To effectively analyze the company’s strategic objectives, it is ideal that the vision and mission are measured against realistic aspects. Even though Rona Inc embarks into different strategic objectives at a time, it becomes necessary to see the extent in which the company is able to handle such components to success. For this reason, carrying out S.M.A. R.T analysis will give an analytical overview.
S.M.A.R.T analysis
The term S.M.A.R.T is an abbreviation or acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. It is a management criterion that offers the best guide to set up business objectives. S.M.A.R.T is applicable in any management process. This includes but not limited to project management, performance management and even personal a guide to personal development. The concept was contributed by Peter Drucker. The cutting-edge of this concept is credited to its simplicity in understanding the setting up business objectives. For instance, S for Specific advocates the notion that setting-up specific objectives is vital to implementing and achieving success. As the words suggest, a similar scenario is accredited to setting-up measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound objectives.
Rona Inc has been committed to setting-up objectives that are compliant to the S.M.A.R.T model. As discussed above, the company’s strategic objective is to see out the home improvements accessories become available to people across the globe. In a critical way, this objective fulfills the attainability aspect described under the S.M.A.R.T model. The objective is also specific as it set in a particular direction. Counting the extent to which people will have been provided with the company’s products brings in the measurable aspect. This is not to forget that the objective’s relevance is undoubted (H, S. A. & Waalewijn, 1999). Even though the time to fulfill such objective is not well documented, it remains ideal and achievable courtesy of the large personnel network that Rona Inc. has at its disposal. Taking into account that all these necessities are evident in Rona’s execution, it is ultimately sincere to suggest that Rona’s strategic objective, mission and vision are good, well documented and reasonable.
External analysis
The home improvement industry is highly competitive. This is due to the fact that there are many players in this industry and everyone dictates a sizable pool of market-share dominance. Rona Inc has pulled up its game to remain dominant in the industry. As mentioned earlier, the company incorporates all elements for business in its planning process. This includes the analysis of the state of the industry, that is, both the internal and external environment (Mercer, 1998). As it is for any business entity, the business environment can directly determine how to execute routine duties in the most effective manner. To understand the extent of benefits that Rona Inc. has extracted from initiating the elements of the business environment, a PEST analysis gives a comprehensive outlook.
PEST analysis
PEST also refers to as PESTLE stands for, Political, Economic, Social and Technological aspects on analyzing business operations. The four elements as mentioned above are the co-factors. However, several other analysts have added “legal” to form the term PESTLE.
Macro-environmental trends
As the global business takes into a new direction, companies have modified their strategies to adapt to a rapidly changing society and very dynamic environment. There are various macro-environmental trends that shape up modern business.
- Cultural Change (From the Socio-cultural Environment)
One emerging trend in business, especially in the home improvement industry is the use of persuasion to maintain customers. This takes into account the social-cultural environment where the customers’ affairs become the center of attention. If a company does not give a satisfactory service, evidence shows that it is doomed to fail. Culture is sometimes tricky to determine and gain familiarity with for new players in new environments. Similarly, a new business cannot prosper in a new society unless there is a comprehensive study to the societies needs. For instance, advertising products that are negatively received in a certain society makes no sense. This is because it will take a lot of time for such a society to accept such products and on worst case scenario, the society may not accept such products at all. Rona Company is vigilant in making sure that the social-cultural environment matches the relevance of the business. Measures have been put in place to make sure that the company’s products are shaped to satisfy the needs of the respective society. As a result, the different companies under the Rona umbrella have different home improvement services in different areas. Some specialize in installing wall appliances whereas others deal with multiple home accessories that use electricity. The demand for such products and services is what dictates the direction and decision making of the company. There has been an increased ideological influence whereby various regions are influenced by cultures of other regions. For example, people start to shape the interior of their houses in a certain manner that they see on television among other sources. Rona Company takes the advantage of such situations to sell their products. By making the company’s services common to every individual, it becomes easy to convince people do business through them.
- Technological Advancements (From the Technological Environment)
Technology, again leads the list. Technology is utilized in different aspects of business operations. For instance, today, marketing is made easier by technology. As opposed to the ancient marketing strategies, the new technological initiated ways are generally efficient and effective in all dimensions. As stated earlier, the emergence of social networks where people can share life experiences has been a vital tool for business marketing. Technology has also improved communication between staff and even customers. Office premises are equipped with network links to ensure that there is effective communication in the deliverance of services. Consequently, Rona Inc. has adopted various strategies to maximize the advantages of technological advancement. The rise of the social media platform in boosting marketing is effectively utilized by Rona Inc. In fact, this has enabled the company to gain a world-wide reach. In terms of strategic planning, the top management has always put focus on shaping the company’s vision in hand with the pace of technological advancement. Although some stakeholders have argued that technology is disadvantageous to some extent, they have recognized the fact that the benefits surpass the alleged shortcomings. Through the very many platforms in which the company uses to communicate to its direct costumers, it continues to create new clients all over the world. This would not be the case if it were not for the initiative to adapt into the changing technology.
- Increasing Political influence on Business Operations (From the Political Environment)
The company remains attentive in examining political aspects that could hamper daily operations. Through the competent staff that the company has, all political trends and legal issues are well executed to satisfaction. This happens in every area where the company carries its duties. In recent, there has been increased influence on business from the political arena. New political regimes usually come and enact their own policies on business that significantly affects the way that companies such as Roan carry put their business. Therefore, Rona should ensure in future, it is adequately equipped to handle political regime changes that might affect its continuity and its business operations.
However, the company, a deep analysis reveals that Rona has put more focus on social-environmental trends since these are the ones that have the potential to affect the business even more. Since Rona Inc. sells home improvement products, it has become integral to consider customers taste, behavior and general culture. Rona installs home improvement gadgets are considered valuable to the respective society. The extent to which the company listens to the response of customers is the cutting edge and the reason behind the prosperity of Rona Inc.
Industry analysis – Porter’s Five Forces
- Industry Rivalry
- Threat from new Entries
Although new entries into the industry do not pose a big threat, established business organizations always make their lines of business hard for new companies to enter. In a similar manner, Rona Inc. has set the bar high to gain this competitive edge. Since its incision, Rona Inc. has been able to control the market. Appropriate action is always taken to lock out competitor companies. For instance, Rona Company could lower the prices of products in the market hence making it hard for a newcomer to survive. However, this requires a good understanding of the new-comers products and operational strategy. The company could use technology instead to facilitate this strategy (Westwood, 2014).
- The Threat of Substitute’s Products
Substitute products could pose a major threat for existing business entities. These are products that customers could prefer to buy as an alternative. However, this depends on a number of factors including quality, relevance and level of satisfaction. Therefore, it is upon the management of the company to employ responsive measures that would enable market share maintenance. Again, with the help of information technology, Rona Company has easily analyzed the market, the strengths of substitute products and responded appropriately mainly by improving the quality of its products.
- Bargaining Power for Suppliers and Buyers
Maintaining a pool of customers in a competitive market is not an easy task for most business organizations. It takes more effort rather than just producing high-quality products. Here, the bargaining power matters. For this reason, Rona Inc. has established a good communication routine with the suppliers. This has enabled the suppliers get updates on a frequent basis. In a situation where serious information is to be passed-by, the communication with suppliers has always been effective (Worthington & Britton, 2006). In addition, maintaining a high bargaining power keeps them in the best position to exploit relationship benefits
- Bargaining Power for Buyers
Effectively dealing with bargaining power of buyers is an ultimate survival technique. A business entity should consider variation of factors that touches economic needs of buyers. Rona Inc. has by far stood ground on technology making it possible for buyers to bargain. For instance, new technology is used in packaging to presents products to the market with various packaging quantities allowing buyers get services that in line with their different economic abilities. In delivering services, different packages have been identified to ease the work and time for buyers.
Conclusion
The current industry that Rona Inc operates in is very dynamic. The company has made it its duty to adapt to rapidly changing trends of the industry, for example, through the accommodation of new technological ways of conducting business. This has made it possible for the company to not only to maintain a significant market-share but to also evolve with time. As stated in the company’s mission, focus on the provision of quality services is always justified, especially with the help of a competent working-force. Recently, the corporation has registered a big growth in capital, a sign that everything is going as per expectations. Reviews from the company’s esteemed customers do not lie. Even though there are still some challenges to work on, it is definite that Rona Inc. is on the right track in the quest to lifting people’s standard of living. The future success of Rona Inc. entirely lies in the hands of stakeholders. Hard work, commitment and determination have always been the secret to achieving success. The top management of the corporation, in line with the different management of its associated corporate companies has to work together towards one goal or objective. Unity always creates a strong threshold and makes a huge difference in a company’s operations.
References
Cotton, D., Falvey, D., & Kent, S. (2000). Market leader: Intermediate business English. Course book. Harlow: Longman.
H, S. A., & Waalewijn, P. (1999). A Knowledge base representing Porter's Five Forces Model.
Westwood, R. (2014). Core-periphery relations and organisation studies (3rd ed.).
Mercer, D. (1998). Marketing strategy: The challenge of the external environment. London: Sage in association with Open University Business School.
Rona.Inc. (2014). Retrieved from http://http://www.rona.ca/en
Worthington, I., & Britton, C. (2006). The business environment. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall.
